


She Could Tell Him (But She Won't)

by m7storyteller



Category: Justified
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-23
Updated: 2011-05-23
Packaged: 2017-10-19 17:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/203600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m7storyteller/pseuds/m7storyteller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She won't tell him the reason she's wanted him to go with her after James Earl Dean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Could Tell Him (But She Won't)

**Author's Note:**

> Opening dialogue, and the dialogue used at the ending comes from the episode Justified 2.01 The Moonshine War. Credit for the lines go to Elmore Leonard & Graham Yost.

"I'm not comfortable with these people.", she admits, softly sighing.

"What people?  Perverts?", he asks, glancing at her as he drivers.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel could see him looking at her, his eyes darting back and forth from her to the road and back again, waiting for her to answer him.  There are two way she could answer him, the way that was the partial truth, the other being the truth that she really didn't feel like talking about.

She knows she could tell him about the 'close' family friend that always seemed awfully interested in her and her sister whenever he was around them.  Much too interested if you had asked her back then.  About how he would watch them as they played.  How the little hairs on the back of her neck would prick up whenever he was around.  How he was always around, whether he was invited or not to their family gatherings her grandma often held at her house. 

She could tell him about that one day, during one of those gatherings that her sister had run into their grandma's house to get some water and that the man had followed her inside.  And how she followed him inside, because she knew, even at the tender age of eight, that there was something wrong with the way he was acting.  Her sister was in the bathroom, and the man was in the hallway, she told him a lie that her grandma was looking for him, something about slicing him up some of her carrot cake for him to take home.  And that later that night, she told her mom and her grandma she didn't like him, that something about him just felt wrong, didn't feel right and she didn't like it, not one bit.

Then she could tell him that he apparently finally did try to do something, not to her or her sister but to another kid they knew, and that their daddy found out.  He had been keeping an eye on things, after her grandma had told him about Rachel's feelings and concerns, taking it to heart.  The man was arrested, and their daddy only got charged for not having a permit to carry a concealed weapon.  Ending it with telling him that the last she heard he was sent to jail, and from what she knew that many prisoners, especially those with children didn't like his kind and he was never heard from again.

She could tell him that, if she really wanted to talk about it, which would happen if she told him.  So, instead of sharing that truth with him, about why she really wanted him to go with her, she tells him the partial truth. 

She's not comfortable being around the people in Harlan, his people as he calls them.  That when she goes, they are all polite, listening to him when she hears him mutter about preferring to do paperwork.  She continues, talking about how it's all yes ma'am, no ma'am, but when the cuffs come out, she's the black bitch.

She smiles when he says that what she really wants is his help with his people, to throw them a pork-rind or some ding-dongs, as they ride toward Harlan.

 _Finis_


End file.
